Suffered my first real loss today in Blighttown. Got knocked off the narrow walkways twice, lost about 2k souls which wasn't bad, but I lost the 8 humanity I stockpiled from dropping baddies early on. This was really helping out my resistances and such, so we'll see how bad the penalty is.
All in all I don't think the deaths have been too unfair yet. One way to be perceiving the deaths as unfair would be entering an area where you don't have the means to survive, such as New Londo without a Transient Curse, or trying to fight a Black Knight at level 8. I guess the second I'll have been cursed I'll feel like the game is ass. Every time there isn't an obvious or doable way to do something I usually practice a little and come back, and I either have an item to help me or I've just gotten good enough to beat the part. The only thing I don't understand right now is how to beat that Hydra... Though I haven't really tried.